Wild Tulip Tote Bag

Doodle Art Tote Bag Bought to Life

Do you like to doodle?

You know, draw funny shapes or lines on a piece of paper while chatting on the phone usually.
I can doodle anytime. Just sit me down with a pencil and paper and I will happily drift off to my own little world while my hand doodles images.

Tote Bag Doodles

The little creation I am posting here today is the result of one of those doodlings.

I think it’s a wonderful little girls tote bag. In fact I gave it a name – Wild Tulip.

You can see the whole creation here in a 30 sec slide video. (if you do have a slow connection it takes about 100 sec to load, trust me I know)

Not only was Wild Tulip the result of a doodle, I also made it from off-cuts and bits and pieces from fabrics chosen solely for colour.
The mustard colour material used for the outer shell of the bag is commercial grade furniture upholstery textile while the inner liner is nylon similar to that used in making tents. The applique is a mixture of light canvas, nylon and what I assume to be curtain material.

The end result, not accounting for time, power and thread, a project cost of less than $8

For sure, we can all go to Zazzle or eBay and buy a pre-made hand crafted bag for about the same price… except that it is no fun and I really do enjoy making my own things.

Call me old fashioned if you like, I still love to shop offline, in physical stores. It does not take much of an excuse to get me out of the house and go looking for bargains.

My excuse on this occasion – I didn’t have any fabric in the colours I wanted.

My truly favourite place to go. One store, two words.

Aarons Emporium.

‘Tis a wonder treasure trove of craft supplies that has it’s beginnings founded in the naughties (00′s, a term I heard on the local radio station, it describes the first part of this century so well).
Once inside it is like going back to the seventies (70′s). Shelves packed with all sorts of craft must haves and all priced with little stickers and hand written. No cash register, no computers … (they do have card facilities but kept inconspicuously off to one end of the counter)

My material for this tote bag came from here. Pulled out of a box of assorted pieces and from a table with marked prices.
No names or descriptions of what it is just a price. And the price was perfect.

The problem I sometimes have making things this way is that some of the textiles I use are not really designed for the project in mind. However there is always a way around this and a little creative cutting a sewing goes a long way.

Tote Bag Materials and Things Used

Yellow Mustard Material 43 x 87cm

Red Nylon 43 x 87cm

Black Fusing Fabric

Ruler

Marking Chalk

Trace Paper

Light Card

Craft Knife

Sewing Machine

I would have liked to give step by step specific instructions on the making of this bag however since it was not really a planned project many of the steps I took to make the bag did not follow a sequence that is easy to follow. I do promise to make the next project easy to follow.

However the overview of what I did is this… ( I did manage to take photos of many of the steps of what I did. I am hoping to get them in the cloud so you can view them easily…. firstly, I will need to get my tech guy on the job, my husband)

Step 1.
Draw and cut patterns from light card

Step 2.
Place patterns on fabric and trace around. Cutting 1 cm from the trace mark cut out the pieces from the fabric.

Step 3.
I ironed on black fusing paper to the nylon liner and machine sewed the liner together.

Step 4.
Sew the 3 panels of the front of the bag together.

Step 5.
Using the fusing paper or you can bast your your applique pattern to the front panel of the bag.

Step 6.
Sew the applique in place.

Step 7.
Sew all the out bag panels together

Step 8.
Make the bag handles and pin them to the inside of the outer part of the bag

Step 9.
Insert the bag liner. Align the liner to the outer and pin in place.

Step 10.
Sew the two parts of the bag together.

This tote bag is not something I would attempt if you are just beginning.

If you are looking for an easy Tote Bag to make Skip To My Lou have a very good one.
If you would like the patterns for the bag and are quite at ease with knowing how to go about making one feel free to drop me line and I will happily send them to you.

I made this Wild Tulip tote bag on a Bernina sewing machine that is fifty years old and it made more than an adequate job of it. The only thing with this time proven machine is the stitch patterns are limited.

With a more modern machine you will do wonders.

Although I think this little girls bag is wonderful, I am somewhat disappointed that I never took the time to plan my steps properly so I could share them here in an organized manner.

Check back soon I have another tote bag in mind that I will make for the annual craft show at Martinborough.